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Grand Jury Reviews Railroad Fatalities

The Santa Barbara County Civil Grand Jury received a request to investigate railroad deaths.

During a four year period from 2015 to 2018, twenty railroad related fatal accidents occurred along the 109-mile Santa Barbara County railroad corridor. The jury found the vast majority of railroad fatalities occurred in two relatively small stretches of track from Ortega Hill to Milpas Street in the City of Santa Barbara and from Patterson Ave to Glen Annie Road in Goleta.

Ninetyfive percent of fatalities were a result from pedestrian trespassing on the right-of-way owned by Union Pacific Railroad and operated by both Union Pacific Railroad and Amtrak.

The Jury identified the high rates of "suicide by train" and deaths of homeless/transient persons as significant. The Jury focused efforts on these high fatality zones and developed six recommendations that could enhance railroad safety in Santa Barbara County.

9 Comments

From the Grand Jury Report: "The agencies are encouraged to work with Union Pacific on implementing the recommendations, which include mending existing fences and erecting new ones; removing overgrown foliage in the right-of-way area; improving security patrols by negotiating memoranda of understanding with local law enforcement; increasing surveillance by installing video cameras to monitor pedestrian trespassing and transient/homeless encampments; and stakeholder collaboration with regular meetings." (Noozhawk)

I just heard from Amtrak radio someones laying on the tracks somewhere but I cannot tell from the location they provide it in numbers. something like 3345..The trains will be slower until the track is cleared.

You would think Union Pacific would have built sufficient barriers l to protect their tracks long ago, just due to the costs of service disruption due to illegal treaspassing, let alone now becoming a suicide magnet of choice which has to be very traumatizing to their own personnel.

Well one each suicide at Milpas and State...what would you suggest concertina wire across the streets or a barrier like Cold Spring bridge along the thousands of miles track allowing no access. You might want to rethink this idea.